The contemporary condition increasingly reveals the destructive impact of human activity on ecosystems—manifested in environmental degradation, shifts in social relations and disruptions to cognitive and mental ecologies. In response, artists and researchers from the Media Environments and Acoustic Ecologies Chairs at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar propose a framework that shifts attention away from computational systems understood in isolation, toward a broader field of relational interactions in which biological, technological and perceptual processes co-emerge.
The contributed works approach life not as a discrete, bounded or fully computable entity, but as a dynamic constellation of relational processes. Within this constellation, humans, nonhuman organisms, materials and technological systems engage in continuous exchanges that give rise to emergent forms of agency, perception and organization. Rather than positioning technology as external to life, these works explore how technological and biological processes mutually inform and transform one another.
Through artistic experimentation, ecological engagement and theoretical reflection, the contribution invites audiences to reconsider their place within complex ecological and technological entanglements and to reflect on the forms of responsibility, care and imagination required to inhabit these conditions.
Curated by Prof. Ursula Damm, Prof. Kerstin Ergenzinger, Dr. Mindaugas Gapševičius | Gestaltung Medialer Umgebungen (Media Environments). The production of the artworks was supported by the STIL Foundation within the Strategies for Non-Machines project.